U.S. Community in Germany Is Largest Abroad : Americans at Home in ‘K-Town’

The Americans living in and around this ancient Rhineland city call it “K-Town.”

Not so odd, perhaps, that this West German city should have a Yankee moniker hung on it--for Kaiserslautern boasts the largest single American community outside the United States.

“We’ve got more than 72,000 Americans living in the area,” remarked Air Force Brig. Gen. Cecil W. Powell, adding that the figure includes about 22,000 U.S. servicemen and that the rest are their dependents and civilian employes of the military.

Environmental Concerns

The very size of the American population has led to some problems. Local German environmentalists are protesting plans to build additional dependent housing on the various nearby military bases because trees would have to be cut down at construction sites.

“The Germans are properly concerned with preserving their forests, which in some areas are dying,” Powell said. “We have to convince them that some new housing is essential to our task here as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.”

Powell is commander of the Americans’ Kaiserslautern military community and, as such, is “mayor of K-Town,” just as his West German counterpart, Theo Vondano, is lord mayor of Kaiserslautern.

Powell is an unlikely mayor. A trim, steel-haired, much-decorated fighter pilot, he is commander of the 316th Air Division at Ramstein Air Base, which carries with it the job of chief of community relations.

“It’s unique in the Air Force,” Powell observed. “It’s challenging and rewarding and I wouldn’t trade it for any other in the service.”

Between Two U.S. Bases

K-Town gets its huge American colony by virtue of being situated between two of the biggest U.S. air bases in Europe: Ramstein to the west of town and Sembach to the east. Ramstein is also headquarters for the U.S. Air Force in Europe and the equivalent NATO command.

In addition, Kaiserslautern is the headquarters of the U.S. Army’s 21st Support Command at Panzer Kaserne, the biggest U.S. supply backup organization in Europe.

Thus, the area is dotted with various supply, transport, signal, artillery, air defense, engineering, finance and medical outfits, including, for instance, the largest U.S. military hospital in Europe.

There are 14,000 U.S. military families in the area, with 6,000 of them living on American bases. The other 8,000 rent apartments or houses in more than 150 villages in a 25-mile radius, known as “living on the local economy.”

The U.S. military’s plans to build about 900 more on-base housing units for families were approved by local West German authorities, who get along generally well with their American guests. But when it became known that some trees had to be cut down to make way for the housing, the issue became a local political football.

A local leader of the environmentalist Greens party, Andreas Markus, called the construction plans “a scandal,” declaring that although the proposal had been discussed with the Kaiserslautern City Council, the general public had not been properly informed.

Citizens Groups Formed

And a group calling itself Citizens’ Initiative Against U.S. Construction Plans was formed with the slogan: “It’s enough now.” It argues that Kaiserslautern is already overloaded with foreign military personnel.

Part of the difficulty, according to officers dealing with it, seems to be the confusion that surrounded the announcement of the building plans.

“Under our instructions from Congress, we have to plan five years ahead,” one American officer explained. “So various different proposals have been kicked around in different areas.

“Somehow a local paper came up with a figure of 450,000 trees that would have to give way. That worried some people, but the real figure is nowhere near that. Our present building plans envisage less than a quarter of that number being removed.”

The trees involved, some evergreens and some deciduous, are on the Ramstein base.

Lord Mayor Vondano supports the need for more housing and welcomes the presence of the Americans and their bases, which are the largest single employer in the area, the Palatinate region between the Rhine River and the French border.

Kaiserslautern was once a Roman settlement and, in the 12th Century, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa or Frederick I chose the area as his favorite hunting retreat. After the French victories of the early 19th Century, Napoleon used to visit the city.

60% of City Destroyed

About 60% of the city was destroyed in World War II bombing, but it was handsomely rebuilt after the war with the help of the prosperity fostered by the American military presence.

Toward the end of the war, the German Luftwaffe used a nearby section of autobahn as an air strip and, after the defeat of Nazi Germany, so did the newly arrived U.S. air units. Eventually, the Ramstein base became a huge complex on a 3,000-acre site.

As the U.S. military strength here grew, so did the dependents’ community. Today, there are about 7,000 American students in eight schools in the area, now reportedly the largest American school system outside the United States. And a contract bus service provides transportation among the 136 towns and villages of the Kaiserslautern military community.

Some key officers, like Powell, have to live on their bases to be immediately available for alerts and emergencies. But those who live in the outlying villages--”on the economy”--must plan ahead in order to get to their posts on time.

“In bad weather or heavy traffic,” one officer said, “it can take you anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to get to work.”

High Rents for Servicemen

Another drawback to living off-base is that servicemen winding up paying higher rents as the value of the dollar declines in comparison with the West German mark, U.S. officials say. Still, many more-adventurous Americans want to experience life in a German community and try to find places to live that they can afford, yet are big enough for their families.

“A few Americans who invited German neighbors to Thanksgiving dinners in the past few years have found the practice so successful that this year they had to rent a hall to include all the locals who wanted to come,” one officer said.